How Can I Prevent Aging Skin?

“How can I prevent aging skin?”

This is a question that’s been present in my mind for quite sometime. They say beauty is only skin deep. Well, so is youth.

My youngest-looking friends all have something in common, which is great skin. I myself have gone through the same skincare regimen they’re going through in order to turn back time as a mother of four.

It’s all about living healthy and treating your body right. Your face will have fewer facial marks if you just pay attention to what you do to it and what can possibly cause wrinkles to form all over it in the first place. Presence of mind is important here.

Lotions and Moisturizers

Lube up. Get that skin cream and apply it to your skin. Even free hotel face cream does something to rejuvenate your skin. Emollients won’t only plump up fine lines (temporarily), but it also extends the life span of your skin. Do this especially if you’ve gotten a tan and your dead skin is falling off of you like snake scales.

Ditto when it comes to those who do chemical peels in order to get a fresh layer of skin out. Moisturize as much as possible. Keep that skin moist (instead of oily). Dermatologists don’t just recommend this step. They outright implore people to moisturize and lubricate. Use a daily lotion with shea butter, glycerin, or some other basic hydrator as part of its ingredients.

The Diet and Skin Connection

Speaking of diet, your skin is constantly battling the sun and its harmful rays by repairing and regenerating itself after it cells commit suicide from being exposed to UV radiation. To allow for such regeneration to happen, it’s imperative that you eat with the right nutrition to stay healthy and young (such as Vitamin A, B, C, E, and other antioxidants found in green leafy vegetables, citrus, carrots, and tomatoes).

If for example you instead have a diet consisting of chips and soft drinks (mixed with hard drinks later in the night), you’re on the fast track of not only looking 50 years old by the time you’re 30; you might also regret your actions in your actual old age, when your metabolism slows and your regenerative properties are not what they used to.

Smoking Damages Skin and Causes Wrinkles

Don’t smoke. Or, since this is a free country and you can do whatever you want that’s legal, smoke with the knowledge that it can lead to wrinkles or worse (lung cancer and other respiratory ailments). Wrinkles in particular run deeper and happen sooner to people who smoke or are around smokers. It’s known as the smoker’s face and it makes you look 10 years older rather than 10 years younger.

This is because the face gets decreased blood flow. Meanwhile, the toxic chemicals from smoking tobacco also contribute to this wrinkly result. Additionally, because smokers tend to squint in order to keep the smoke from getting to their eyes, this hastens the formation of crow’s feet and eye bags due to “overuse” of the skin around the eyes on top of all the bad agents from tobacco smoke entering their system.

Excessive Drinking and Your Skin

Unless you’re drinking red wine in moderate amounts, drinking alcohol excessively (like beer or vodka) can lead to your skin having a shorter lifespan or more mileage. Drinking isn’t only bad when driving. It’s also bad for your skin (or your health in general, to be honest). As someone who does her best to keep my skin young and supple, one of the first vices I cut was drinking.

Heavy drinkers tend to also become saggy and older looking, especially if it’s coupled with an unhealthy diet that would otherwise stave off the harmful effects of excessive drinking in the first place. Alcohol specifically deprives skin of aging-preventing nutrients.

Prevent Sun Damage to Prevent Wrinkles

People with sun damaged skin tend to look older than they really are. Sure, genetics can play a part in all this, with you either ending up with skin fit for a 50-year-old while your 50-year-old teacher has skin that makes him look a young 40-ish dad or even an old 30-ish bachelor.

However, mitigating circumstances like sun damage can make you more susceptible to aging skin. To be more specific, did you know that when ultraviolet rays penetrate your skin, they damage its elastic fibers that keep it firm, thus allowing wrinkles to develop? Excessive sun can also lead to liver spots on sun-exposed areas.

You Don’t Need Sun to Feel the Burn

Sun avoidance and SPF sun creams won’t protect you from the fireplace in your living room and the space heater next to your desk. Yes, any source of heat can ruin skin. Direct exposure from two to three feet away from fire or a heat source can cause skin redness and collagen breakdown.

So you don’t feel the burn, it’s advised that you sit at least ten feet away from a flame source. After all, topical collagen (that has molecules too big to get absorbed by your skin) or collagen injections won’t really save saggy skin when push comes to shove. Prevention is still better than the cure.

Plastic Bottles Damage More Than the Planet

Yes. Plastic bottles can damage the skin too. No, it’s not from direct contact or blunt-force trauma from being pelted by angry environmentalist extremists with empty (or even full) plastic bottles of mineral water. Instead, dermatologists cringe whenever women tote bottles of water or (worse) any other drink (like “Diet” Cola).

It’s because plastic bottles and even straws create lines that aggravates the existing laugh lines around your mouth as you make that sucking O-shape to sip water from the bottle mouth or through a straw. Use a mug or a glass to drink water from now on like they did in the olden ages. Or get a reusable water bottle with a “squirtable” spout.

Beauty Sleep Can Get Ugly

There’s a limit for everything, including beauty sleep. Dermatologists in particular advise against sleeping with your face pressed against the wrinkles on the fabric of your bed or pillow case. You should snooze on your back in the prone position rather than face-down and back up in the supine position.

Your back will get the brunt of the clothing wrinkles but at least you can hide that with clothing. Your face on the other hand will immediately be seen by those around you. You can also keep bed sheet wrinkles from becoming facial wrinkles by getting smooth beddings made of silk or satin or anything with a high thread count.

Conclusion

Aging skin is as preventable as forest fires. Aging itself is inevitable (as well as death), but you can delay the inevitable for as long as possible by taking note of the tips above. BY moisturizing and taking good care of your facial and body skin, you’ll be able to end up wrinkle-free up until the age where you’re expected to be heavily wrinkled anyway, so it doesn’t matter if wrinkles show up anymore.

It’s amazing how much younger you look when you have youthful glowing skin. It takes a decade or two off of your actual age almost. It’s not inevitable to have wrinkles or at least really deep wrinkles no matter what genetics say. There are a veritable multitude of ways you can make your skin look brighter, fresher, and younger. Some of these tips are even things you would’ve never guessed! The other tips are quite obvious though.